Rick Neuheisel grabbed a microphone and gave his traditional post-game pep talk to UCLA fans, the few that hadn’t already exited the Rose Bowl. The postgame locker room speech the public didn’t see was much more consequential.

UCLA’s ineffective offense is a tired act and the failure of Kevin Craft to engineer drives that end with touchdowns must have had the defense pulling its collective hair out. Whether he already sensed tension or figured it was imminent, Neuheisel warned his team that placing blame on others wouldn’t help the 3-6 Bruins.

“That’s him being a good coach,” UCLA defensive back Alterraun Verner said. “He doesn’t want a Civil War within the team. We don’t want that type of turmoil or we’re really not going to play good.”

The Bruins aren’t playing good, conflict or not. Predictably, the defense keeps UCLA in games but the offense isn’t producing. UCLA had five series that went three-and-out, which leads to the defense wilting in the fourth quarter. UCLA and Oregon State were tied at 3 at halftime, but Oregon State won, 34-6, behind scored 31 second-half points. The Beavers feasted on three turnovers and scored 17 points in the fourth quarter.

It’s plausible defensive players would be resentful.

“I addressed it because you want to be out in front of it, because it’s certainly a risk when defensively when you’re playing well and offensively you’re struggling,” Neuheisel said. “I came from the Baltimore Ravens, which went through that for I don’t know how many years. It’s a very dangerous thing to have happen, even though it’s certainly understandable.

“We can’t be deflectors. We can’t be people that say, `Well, it’s their fault.’ Understandably, we’ve got to get better. I told the defensive players, I’m there watching the offense in practice more often than watching the defense. The effort is there. We’re just struggling with the line of scrimmage.”

“There’s no excuses of us being tired or short fields,” Harwell said. “We came to college to play defense. We’re not getting paid.

“That’s our job, and we’re not doing that. We played three good quarters. The fourth quarter we just gave it up. It’s tough. We just didn’t finish. We didn’t execute.”

Freshman Rahim Moore was receptive to Neuheisel’s reminder that football is a team game.

“You know what he said? That’s the best thing I’ve heard all week,” Moore said. “He said don’t point the finger. Individually, we all need to look at what we could’ve done. I made a few plays, but I missed a tackle that gave up 20 yards. We have to suck it up and say, `Hey. What could’ve I done for the team?”‘